As last year and with most of the UK, we have had a fair bit of snow: the second lot since early December. Rather than yet another shot of my house, and since it was snowy in Pennsylvania when I went there in mid February, here is Mermie's house and a nearby mail box .

2010 was the year of only a single natural history holiday: to Sicily in April. We did visit a number of gardens and a number of Rolls-Royce events, as ever. The main event was seven weeks in July and August being driven across U.S.A. by Mermie in her Rolls-Royce Phantom III "Ovid".

If you want to see the pictures bigger, click on the small version and it might open up a larger one - not all have the link where I think there is enough in the thumbnail alone. As monitors get bigger, I have made the majority of the link pictures 1280 pixels wide.

The year started with our regular visit to Roger and Kristin Saunders in Totnes, Devon for a Twelfth Night party. Although there was not much snow, it was icy. The return journey involved a touchy slither from the back road at Roger's down a steep slope between stone gate pillars. From then on the roads were empty and we made good time until Reading when my car's main drive belt broke due to a seized idler pulley. AA Relay worked well except for the AA man trying to get the office to authorise the hire car: nobody answered the phone for him either.

As mentioned, I went to the USA in February: the last 'plane in before about 8 inches of snow fell on Philadelphia. After a few days at Exton, with the opportunity to visit Ovid's engine at Dick Frawley's workshop and to sit inside Ovid's engine compartment removing 70 years' dirt from inside the chassis, we flew to Florida for the R.R.O.C. Inter-regional meet in Orlando. We stayed in a resort hotel that had most of its facilities in an enormous conservatory complete with alligators. Among the trips we made were one to the Kennedy Space Center where there was a good opportunity to see eagles and vultures as well. The car rally was at Fantasy of Flight which has a huge collection of aircraft and hangars full of spare engines and planes under restoration.

The return to UK via Philadelphia was the first time we had flown together: in time for the 20 Ghost Club AGM & dinner. Mermie received the Woodmansee Trophy from Sir John Stuttard for highest mileage in a Ghost in the past year (her trip to New Orleans), for the second time in successive years. We also managed a visit to a ceramics show at the RCA and a visit to the newly rearranged ceramics gallery at the V&A. The lustre tiles here were in the Near East gallery, however.

A bit later, just before Easter, we had a couple of days with my niece Jane and her husband Roland in East Sussex. On the way we stopped at the National Trust Arts & Crafts house, Standen. As photographs inside are now allowed, it gave me a chance to take some of the William de Morgan lustre pots on display. The dish below left is among my favourites.

It had been very wet, so the chickens were rather muddy. I took some shots to provide some of the pictures for their website www.overthestile.com/ as well as some of the different eggs of the breeds they keep. They are selling fertilised eggs, which are rather more profitable than ones just for eating.

I went over to visit Mermie at the end of May. She had just started running in Ovid, so we had a couple of trips to visit Dick Frawley's workshop. Various cars were parked around: here a Park Ward drop head MkVI Bentley, with Ovid in the background. John Love had come over to decide whether to keep or sell one of two cars he had: a Bentley 4 1/4 with bodywork similar to mine, but annoyingly having some bodywork features mine lacks, such as the Perspex High-Vision panels in the roof: I wasn't prepared to buy it to cannibalise; he also had a Wraith, which he decided to keep and to sell the Bentley. Here, Dick, observed by Nathan is trying to sort out the fuel gauge sender. More or less all the old cars I was involved with during this year had non-working fuel gauges - maybe they don't like ethanol.

Mermie came over in June for the RREC Annual Rally - it was at Rockingham Castle, a new venue. Rather than give any coverage in depth, I include the overall winner, a Phantom II Kellner saloon with division, in a colour described as "Tulipe Noire". The wood on the doors is Baroda wood from India. At the end of Mermie's visit, we had tea at the Ritz - a wedding present from Jane and Roland. Unfortunately, pressure of available slots to fit it in, meant that we had to take tea at 7.30pm, but we were able to visit the V&A and walk through Kensington Gardens and St James's Park to get there on a fine and warm evening.

July had two sad occasions: Lysbeth's Mother, Alex Sawyer died, having reached 100 in January, while my Mother's second cousin Bert Crawshaw also died at 92. I had first met Bert by chance at a Royal Photographic Society event in Bath. A keen photographer, he had been a member of RAF ground staff during WWII. The funerals were a day apart, so I had to drive down for the first to Devon for Alex' funeral at Thurlestone, staying at Roger & Kristin's house overnight with John Clifton, who was house-sitting while R & K were yachting in the Baltic, and an opportunity to visit the Devon Guild of Craftsmen's summer exhibition on the way. The following morning was a run to Leatherhead for Bert's cremation: a service attended by many RPS members and their President, as well as various Battle of Britain and Spitfire enthusiasts. Slightly strange having the RAF March music in the service, but moving even so.

In mid July, I flew to USA to join Mermie for the coast to coast return trip in Ovid. Where possible, Mermie had planned the route to avoid Interstate Roads and with the opportunity to stop at the occasional State Park and by the road to look at plants and anything else of interest. The Westward route started with a run North through to the RROC Annual Meet in Toronto, so we started by driving North up into New York State, with an overnight stop near Rochester after a meal with some of my ex-colleagues from Eastman Kodak, then via Niagara to Toronto. A full programme of visits and talks occupied a number of days, culminating in the rally itself.


Preparation for car loading: as well as luggage, spare parts, cleaning materials and oils were carried: a big procedure unloading and re-loading at overnight stops.	Keith Sherper's 1937 Phantom III Thrupp & Maberly drop head coupé 3BU86 driving onto the show field. Mechanically restored by Dick Frawley and class winner at the RROC Meet.

At Toronto: Dick Frawley adjusting the engine mount damper to overcome judder on driving off. Continuing our journey, we stopped for lunch with Roger & Eleanor Hadfield. Here, Roger is explaining details of light aircraft to Mermie.	Roger, as a retired airline pilot and farmer, has not only a number of RR cars, but also other mechanical items. Not all the cars here are his: he had invited the RREC Upper Canada Section members across as well.

Bob and Nancie Thompson put us up for the night at Elgin on the coast of Lake Huron. Here they are with their 40/50hp Piccadilly Roadster.	Ovid in a lay-by off the Trans-Canada Highway north of Lake Superior.

The road crossing the Great Plains runs parallel to the railway, with huge freight trains. The landscape is very flat (but not like Norfolk) punctuated only by grain silos.	A major feature of the westward journey was a detour to Pike's Peak (14100 feet). We did a run up Trail Ridge Road to 12000 feet the day before, just to check. We had a couple of stops for overheating - water boils at around 94°C at this sort of height.

One of the nice features of the trip was the chance to talk to people at fuel stops. Here, a father is explaining the features of Ovid to his younger son, for him to tell to his elder brother.	Descending a pass into California from Nevada

Entering Yosemite National Park from the East: we had found at an earlier stop that Mermie as a senior citizen could have a pass for $10 that gave unlimited free access to all National and State Parks, which saved us at least $25 a time.	The Pacific Ocean, reached after a drive over a very winding pass over the Coast Range. All that remained was a run up the coast to Monterey.


Mermie had been asked to come for a TV interview for the Pebble Beach website. When waiting to pick up the interviewer and his crew, we found ourselves close to where RR Motor Cars were showing the latest products from Goodwood.	Arriving on the showground at Pebble Beach early on the day of the Concours. Breakfast available.

The winner of the Rolls-Royce class: 1934 Phantom II Thrupp & Maberly drop head coupé with dickey 2SK.	On the highway to Berkeley and San Francisco - another road next to the railroad, but with port facilities to the left. I hadn't seen the train coming when I fired the camera.

After crossing the Golden Gate Bridge after a lunch stop in Berkeley to visit Mermie's late husband Ken's sister and her husband.	We then drove to Point Reyes Station further North. The following day we had lunch with two of Mermie's college friends: Tanis Walters and Chude Allen, followed by a walk in the Abbotts Lagoon nature reserve on the coast.


Parked at White Wolf Camp for two nights. The metal boxes were for storing anything likely to be edible by bears. We decided that engine oil, car polishes and hide food came into this category as well.	Rather than going for a drive, we took a botanical walk led by one of the rangers and then spent the rest of the day walking and looking at the plants. A pool in Yosemite near the camp, ideal as a place to start fishing.

Dodecatheon "Shooting Star" by a creek in Yosemite. The spring flowers were still blooming: the snow had not dispersed in this area until June.	On the way out of Yosemite. Half Dome, a favourite subject of Ansel Adams' pictures, in the distance.

The original plan had been to go through Death Valley, but the potential for fuel starvation issues at high temperatures, even if we started very early, made us take a route East of there, eventually going through Zion National Park and from there to stay two days at Bryce.	By contrast with Zion, where you look up, as in the shot far left, in Bryce you look down, although we did walk down a trail to the bottom to look up.


I like this one enough to use it as my computer desk top. We moved on from Bryce to the North Rim of Grand Canyon.	What was surprising was that, when travelling through conifer forests as we approached the canyon, there were several meadows with good wildflowers. I haven't yet identified many of them, but on the right is an Erigeron.

The flower on the left is an Indian Paintbrush, while the one on the right is a Scarlet Gilia.	One suddenly comes across the canyon, as the forest extends to the rim.The left-hand scene was a sunset view, with just after dawn on the right.

We stayed in an outlying building from the Lodge, originally built around 1927, right on the edge of the canyon.	On the first of the two days there, we had seen a number of Bugatti cars on the road. The group were staying at the Lodge for one night as part of a tour that had included Pebble Beach also.


We took a diversion up onto Mesa Verde with its cliff dwellings before an overnight stay in Durango..		We were in time to see the return of trains on the Durango and Silvertown Railroad, a metre gauge line. The light was good as they were turning the loco. We had stopped for the Ely Railroad in Utah on the way West, but also without the chance to have a ride.

Once back in Colorado, fuel starvation problems really hit Ovid. We were needing to make more miles every day than on the way West and had hoped for the weather to be cooler as we went further East. It was not to be. After we reached Lamar, we failed to get further than 6 miles East in the morning and spent the rest of the day working with various helpful people to try and resolve the problem. When, after dark, we were trying to drive the mile back to our motel and failed to proceed, we concluded almost simultaneously that we felt unlikely to sort things out in a reasonable time to get back home and for me to catch my return flight to UK.

The following day we arranged for Ovid to be stored by the breakdown guy who had rescued us twice by then. Mermie made contact with an RROC friend in the next state and arranged for shipment back to Dick Frawley's shop. We hired a Toyota to get home.

Following that trip, things were, by contrast, relatively routine. Mermie came over at the end of September: we visited the RHS garden at Wisley and attended the 20 Ghost Club Autumn Lunch in the Cotswolds. I had a walk in the Valley Gardens in Windsor Great Park - the maples were colouring well. I did a session recording church textiles in Bedfordshire and started recording Sunnyside Church in Berkhamsted.

I again went to the Classic Car Show in Birmingham to photograph the RREC stand. The car in the middle had its body designed by John Blatchley, who also designed Ovid's. Very similar mudguards.

My town centre church has the celebration of 150 years next October. We have heard that our plans for alterations to our listed building have been passed, including those things we had already done. We have a new student youth worker, Kieran Boniface, who is recently married and now living in a flat in Hemel. He is beginning to settle down to the routine of his course.

I continue as a school governor - the change of government has resulted in potential issues on finance and the implications of the introduction of the English Baccalaureate on our curriculum.

I still sing with Aeolian Singers and play in St Albans Rehearsal Orchestra. We had to cancel our carol concert because of the snow, but will be continuing to rehearse for our concert of Mozart and Haydn in St Albans Abbey in February.

The garden is again flattened by the snow, only the Viburnum bodnantense is showing flower at the moment. The side fence needs the ivy removed and a couple of posts and panels replaced. I also need to top trim the Judas tree at the front to re-acquire a signal to my satellite dish - removal of creepers from the dish itself has not been sufficient.

Mermie has been closely involved in the development of trails in Exton Park: it has been challenging to find a balance between the needs of the birds that find the pond and its surroundings a good migration staging point and providing facilities for people walking dogs. Rebuilding her deer fence is a priority for her garden, which is now also under snow.

Major RR drives are not on the cards for 2011, but we plan to be looking at the natural history of Morocco in May.

Our belated wishes to you all for a Happy Christmas and a Good New Year.

Colin Hughes and Mermie Karger


Our next stage took us back North before turning East again. The road sides had a different range of flowers: a pinky white Evening Primrose, a Cleome and a bright orange Globemallow.	We passed Monument Valley, dodging thunderstorms, on the way to Mexican Hat for the night.